Once-Paralysed Bride Manages To Walk Down Aisle On Wedding Day
[Photos Courtesy of Love Stories by Halie and Alec]
When Jaquie Goncher was 17, she was told she’d probably never be able to walk again.
But eight years later at her wedding, she surprised all of her guests by standing up from her wheelchair and walking down the aisle.
After suffering a spinal cord injury in a swimming accident, doctors claimed that she would probably be paralysed from her neck down for life.
But she was very, very lucky, and just six months after the accident she was able to stand - though still mostly relied on her wheelchair for the next eight years.
[Photos Courtesy of Love Stories by Halie and Alec]
So after a great deal of work at the gym and physical therapy, she was able to walk down the aisle and stand for 45 minutes during her wedding ceremony.
“I definitely have insecurities, like everyone else does,” she told Cosmopolitan. “But you add wheelchair to that and I have fun, crazy-coloured hair - I’m getting stared at a lot anyway.”
“On your wedding day, everybody’s looking at you, so you want to feel the most beautiful.
“By no means can you not be beautiful in a wheelchair.”
[Photos Courtesy of Love Stories by Halie and Alec]
[Photos Courtesy of Love Stories by Halie and Alec]
So on May 22 2016, Goncher stood up from her wheelchair with her mother and grandfather at her side, and walked down the aisle to her husband-to-be, Andy Goncher.
She said that she didn’t realise all of her guests had started crying as she had kept her eyes on the ground.
Goncher said that it’s been “really emotional”:
"Sometimes I don’t realise how miraculous it is that I am walking.
“When you’re seeing something evolve up close, it looks like it takes longer. But for other people that come in and see you every once in a while, they’re like, ‘Wow! You’re doing so much better!'
“And I’m like, 'I guess?’ You can’t really tell. But this experience reminds me of what a miracle it is that I can walk now."
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